Ethics and Management in the Public Sector

by Alan Lawton, Julie Rayner, Karin Lasthuizen

Grappling with ethical issues is a daily challenge for those working in organizations that deliver public services. Such services are delivered through an often bewildering range of agencies and amidst this constant change, there are fears that a public service ethos, a tradition of working in the public interest, becomes blurred. Using extensive vignettes and case studies, Ethics and Management in the Public Sector illuminates the practical decisions made by public officials. The book takes a universal approach to ethics reflecting the world-wide impact of public service reforms and also includes discussions on how these reforms impact traditional vales and principles of public services. This easy-to-use textbook is a definitive guide for postgraduate students of public sector ethics, as well as students of public management and administration more generally.

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Alan Lawton was born in 1938 in the Pennine village of Micklehurst. He was educated in a small secondary modern school and left without qualifications of any sort. As a youth he worked in the farming and textile industries before serving in the RAF Regiment.

Alan moved to the Isle of Man in 1962 and was largely engaged in agriculture until the early 1970’s when he entered the construction industry as a common labourer and began a long programme of self improvement. He subsequently qualified as a bricklayer and graduated from the Open University with a good honours degree. He later undertook research for a Liverpool University history project and also compiled family histories. He became interested in creative writing at an early age and won the Olive Lamming short story competition for 1979.

The author of The Wanderers of the Water Realm now lives in quiet retirement with Hilary his long time partner and occupies himself with writing, light gardening and doing the cooking.